Monday, November 10, 2008

The good…

In 2008, there were seven direct elections of Secretaries of State who control oversight of statewide elections. Going into the elections, Democrats held four seats while Republicans held three. After Tuesday, Democrats hold six of the seven up for grabs.

…and the bad (it's ugly.)

Only in Washington did the incumbent Republican hold his seat.

Sorry about that, America. There's a stubborn streak of contrariness (adherents like to call it 'independence') in the upper leftian electorate that manifests itself in ticket splitting. For some reason, Secretary of State has traditionally been seen as a "safe" opportunity for an otherwise rational person to vote for a Republican.

Combined with down-ballot drop-off (nearly 200,000 presidential voters didn't marke their ballots for SOS), ticket splitting has returned Republican Sam Reed, the man who created the "Prefers GOP Party" shield for Dino Rossi and who has supervised the radical distortion of our state primaries, essentially forcing a single party ballot on a number of districts and effectively disenfranchising thousands of genuine third party voters in our state.

The challenge for Jason Osgood was formidable. It wasn't just the traditional ticket splitters and ballot drop-off working against him. Getting his message heard through the din surrounding a historic presidential campaign, a high profile gubenatorial rematch and one of the most celebrated Congressional challengers in the country was nearly impossible without almost unimaginable resources. A similar fate befell John Ladenburg, the Democratic challenger for Attorney General.

A thought - what if we elected the statewide constitutional officers in off-year elections, without presidential and gubenatorial distractions? It might enhance public awareness of not only the campaigns, but of the actual duties and importance of the offices themselves.

Anyway, again, sorry America.

And sorry to Jason and John, too. You fought the good fight. You deserved a better result.